


Mental Illness in Comics

by BookofOdym



Category: DCU, DCU (Comics), Marvel, Marvel (Comics)
Genre: Character Study, Essays, Institutional Abuse, Medical Trauma, Mental Breakdown, Mental Health Issues, Mental Institutions, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:21:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28455984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BookofOdym/pseuds/BookofOdym
Summary: Instead of writing fic, the author has developed a lot of opinions about mentally ill characters and how they are treated by fandom, writers and the greater media companies that own them. This is a collection of those opinions.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	Mental Illness in Comics

Hello and welcome to the first edition of Mental Illness in Comics, a series that I update when I feel salty about the way fandom treats mentally ill characters, or when I feel like finally writing the Hank Pym Character Study, in all it's 10,000 word, referencing 1200 different comics glory. Before then I have opinions, mostly about rare characters, and this essay collection is going to end up having like 5 hits.

The salt for today's pork is certain subsets of fandom considering repeatedly facilitating the medical abuse of a mentally ill man to be a lesser crime than being rude to a female character once. Which probably sounds like an overreaction (but not if you've ever read one of my liveblog rants about the Metal Men fandom and victim blaming) so I will do a quick rundown of the situation.

The character in question is Alan Scott, and the first thing you should know about Alan Scott is *unravels a huge list of his bullshit, it reaches all the way down the stairs and out into the garden*.

The panel in question is this one:

Honestly, I find it kind of funny. Maybe you don't, maybe I have a dark sense of humor. Because oh boy some people got pretty mad at me for posting it. But I've also been ~~shipping~~ pretty invested in the dynamic between Alan and one Henry King Jr. recently. Mostly because it's just a fascinating relationship, the fact that at this point Alan's daughter who Hank dated has almost no relevancy to Hank's life, but Alan is still probably the most important person in it (at least who is still alive) just from the sheer bullshitery he has pulled. I want to write fics analyzing this relationship, I want to apply to write for DC just to write a storyline about it (and probably get moved to the batbooks before I can accomplish my life goal. DC: I know you want to write JSA, but we just want to publish Batman).

The entire King-Pemberton family tree has me like the paper wall man, but the point is I have been talking about the Hank and Alan dynamic a lot recently, and no matter what I say about it, it has _never_ garnered the same reaction (calling Alan a terrible person, a bad father, implying that you're a bad person for liking him) that "I can't completely hold my tongue. You've become a disappointment," has. This is concerning for a lot of reasons, but mostly because of how _fucking bad_ the things I've described happening to Hank have been.

Warning for medical abuse, including a theory about sexual medical abuse, and discussion of suicide:

Since we're dealing with a rare character, and I can't really assume full context of the situation is known, I will start at the beginning. Henry King Jr. is the son of, as expected, Henry King Sr., a long term villain of the JSA who once made Hawkman think he was a thermometer, and made Alan think he was a newly discovered Solar System. But in all seriousness... Senior is pretty fucking terrible. He once gaslit one of his childhood friends (who married the woman he had a crush on) in the hope that he would be driven mad and would murder his wife. He once tried to destroy the world, which I will touch on in two paragraphs. Henry King Sr. is irredeemable in all but one sense: he died trying to protect his son.

The mother of Henry King Jr. is Meredith Pemberton, which, because comics continually try to one-up the Pym Family Tree in convolutedness, adds a whole other load of bullshit to sift through. She's a Golden Age hero (The Girl of 1000 Gimmicks), the adopted sister of Sylvester Pemberton (time displaced Golden Age hero, JSA member and founder of Infinity Inc.), she was originally written as being tricked into a relationship by Brainwave Sr. but later written as fully aware and hopeful that he would eventually manage to redeem himself.

At some point when Hank was around 13, his mother died, and although comics describe it as "dying of a broken heart" I am _convinced_ of two things. The first is that it was triggered by the events of All-Star Comics #58-59, because timeline-wise it fits with the age Hank was stated to be at the point his mother dies and it's where Senior commits his worst crimes (thereby proving that he isn't going to redeem himself and come back to be a good father to his family), we also know for a fact that Roy Thomas (Hank's creator) was sent an advance copy of this issue by DC. It has some place in this puzzle. Secondly, I think "dying of a broken heart" is a codeword for attempted suicide. Attempted because it's eventually revealed that she did not die, and she was involved in several conflicts with Young Justice. It was also revealed that she has a daughter, because comics just like to be difficult sometimes, the daughter is called Gimmix, we know almost nothing about her (including if she like... ever knew her brother) but she _is_ relevant to this.

We don't know what happened to Hank between his early teens and when he joined Infinity Inc., it's a blank, other than the fact that he went to college and was very much not on speaking terms with his father, until he somehow discovered that his father was involved in a plot with the Ultra-Humanite, and then encountered the JSA for the first time. The fact that it ended with a fight was mostly Hank's fault: the fact that he decided to make his costume identical to his father's sexy body illusion's, the fact that he decided the JSA Brownstone needed a new window, the fact that he _actively pretended to be his father,_ and the JSA did not trust easily. To avoid just typing out the events of Infinity Inc. (which everyone should read btw), I will just state the important part here: Hank meddling in the affairs of the Ultra-Humanite made him a target, whereas before, he wasn't just because attacking Brainwave Sr.'s one weak spot would lose him an ally and gain him an enemy in one fell swoop. But with one more annoying psychic on the outside, he attacks Hank, and Brainwave Sr. dies to protect his son, giving him his power as he does so.

It seems like a very sweet thing, but it turns out to be a very bad thing, as the extra power causes a growth to start growing in Hank's brain that at first results in hallucinations, and then later results in a complete mental breakdown, where he believes at varying points that he _is_ his father, that the floating illusion head caused by his powers interacting with his hallucinations is his father, and that because his powers were used for evil in the past that means that he _is_ evil himself. He ends up acting out a fantasy of being a cartoon villain, somehow gathering a team of actual villains as he attempts to fight Captain Atom's team (*sigh* "Extreme Justice" and people in universe complain about the Super Buddies as a name?) because fighting heroes is what villains do. Aside: I believe that Hank first went to Captain Atom, Blue Beetle and Booster Gold because they were the only heroes he felt like he could trust, and then as his breakdown worsened he started viewing them as enemies, see Captain Atom (1987) #17 for this weird side dynamic that is just a thing now. The telepath on Cap's team, Maxima, figures out what's going on, and stops the other members of her team hurting Hank.

Maxima's suggestion for Hank's treatment. I will give you five seconds to guess what Alan set up: Hint. Not help and rest.

It's at this point that Alan steps in. He throws around a lot of money, and keeps Hank from being put in Arkham (where, no doubt, he would have been put in group therapy with serial killers, or end up a Bat Villain, so I guess Alan did one good thing, thank you Alan). He builds his own asylum, but manages to staff it with the worst in psychiatric care not currently employed by Arkham. The doctors are actively experimenting on their patient, the guards get incredibly rough with him for no reason, and there was apparently a staff member who distressed the patient so much that he was dragged into illusion hell until he ripped out his own eyes. Given the rest of what I've seen of this place... I have a theory that the guy was sexually abusing the patient. There's also the fact that Pieter (New Doc Mid-Nite) had access to Hank's medical records, which recorded the growth. It could have been operated on at any time, but wasn't... because they wanted to "study his unique mind".

Hank eventually escapes, attacks several members of the Lanternfam (and it is important to mention that he does not do so until the point that Alan has treated him badly enough that he wants to get revenge on him. Notably, he explicitly states that a major factor is looking into Alan's mind and seeing that he didn't really care if Hank got better, he just wanted him locked up), and is later seen with Black Adam's team in Kahndaq, where it's revealed he was controlled by Mister Mind for the duration of the Black Reign story arc. It is my personal belief that he was already being controlled when he attacked Alan in Green Lantern (1990) #152, because of the possession ability that he displayed in that issue but at no point before or afterwards, as well as a rather cryptic discussion with Jade where he tells her that he _isn't_ the person who she knew before, which could make sense in the context of his mental illness, but is interesting considering the later revelation. However, he was not controlled at any point beforehand.

Anyway Mister Mind went Very Hungry Caterpillar on Hank's brain during Black Reign, and ate away most of the growth, so he's cured (no thanks to the medical facility), but Alan still doesn't really trust him. None of the JSA really seem to, although Jay and Carter are definitely concerned more in a Dad way. We haven't reached a point in this relationship where any of the hurt has been dealt with and I want to see it, but I don't think it will be.

Also I promised Gimmix was relevant to this and she is, because apparently Hank's inheritance from Sylvester Pemberton was taken away and given to her, because the JSA members talk (during the 52 series) about how her death makes getting the rights to Infinity Inc. back from Luthor hard, when the person who Syl left them to in the first place is still alive. It's weird and I don't like it is what I am saying, giving away a man's inheritence because he's institutionalized feels wrong.

 **I want to specify that none of this means that Alan is a bad character, that it's wrong to like him, and it definitely doesn't mean that anyone who likes Alan is a bad person.** I like Alan, so if anyone thinks they have the right to harass anyone they can start with me. In fact, Alan is likely mentally ill himself, and has a phobia of mental institutions based on the fact that his mother ended up in one. Honestly, future essays on how Alan's backstory might have resulted in this storyline are likely to come soon. Alan is a fascinating character when you break him down.

No, the salt of today isn't about Alan, it's about how fandom tends to look at mental illness in male characters, and not take it seriously. As another example people saying "Hal Jordan should have been strong enough to resist Parallax". Or "Why is this character no longer taking the meds he was prescribed in 2006, when he was noticeably getting addicted to them to the point that other characters were getting concerned". If a male character has problems with mental illness it's taken as "he's weak," and "he was never a hero in the first place, because heroes don't break down". I don't want to get into Hank Pym too much because it might get confusing but that first Yellowjacket issue? Where he has a psychotic episode and Jan uses it to marry him? That's _weird_ _._ No one ever mentions it but it's weird.

Male characters who are mentally ill can have anything happen to them, and no one gives a shit.

**Author's Note:**

> If you have any characters you want me to look into I will see what I can do.


End file.
